by arthur Weinreb, associate Editor,
august 4, 2004
The amber alert system was named after amber Hagerman, a 9-year-old girl who was abducted while riding her bicycle in arlington, Texas in 1996. Her body was found four days later.
a listener called a Dallas radio station and suggested that the station continuously report facts about children who have been abducted in the same manner as they report severe weather warnings. The station agreed and soon all radio stations in the Dallas-Fort Worth followed suit. The practice of airing constant "amber alerts" was born and spread quickly throughout North america.
The CBC, Canada's national broadcaster, has so far refused to broadcast any amber alerts. apparently the public broadcaster feels that this type of public service announcement is not their cup of tea or as they would put it, is not within their mandate.
When the CBC confirmed their views to alberta's Solicitor General Heather Forsyth, Forsyth responded by saying, "I'm speechless, shocked and saddened." When language like this is used by a politician, it usually means that they are trying to exaggerate a situation--but not in this case. Those are the only words that properly convey the actions, or rather inaction, of the network that sees itself as the defender of Canadian values.
as to why the CBC won't run any amber alerts, the corporation's spokesperson, Ruth-Ellen Soles said, "CBC's editorial and journalistic policies do not permit us to turn our airwaves over to the police for their broadcasts".
Since its inception in the late 1990s the amber alert has been used sparingly. It is only used when police are certain that an abduction has occurred, when they have sufficient information to allow the public to respond to the alert and when there is a reasonable expectation that the victim will be found and/or the suspect arrested. Only the elites at the CBC could ever think of running an amber alert as a take-over of the airwaves by the police. Of course, if the police did control broadcasting we could watch the Fox News Channel and not have to worry about al Jazeera, but I digress.
There can be no better example of the network's elitism than their reason for not airing amber alerts. The pompous executives at CBC see themselves as serving the greater good and can't let a missing child or two interfere with their ideological pursuits. and there is no doubt that the CBC promotes the "Canadian values" of its beloved Liberal Party, not least of which is an absolute indifference to violent crime.
The CBC "claims" that it is reviewing its policy in light of the remarks made by alberta's top cop. But the network will still not commit to airing amber alerts, although they think they are being helpful by running news of abducted children on banners along with the rest of the headlines.
although the network is thinking about it, there is not much chance that your viewing of reruns of The antiques Roadshow on CBC's Newsworld will be interrupted any time soon by the frantic search for a missing child.